Mobile computing devices, such as laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones and smart watches have, or are, becoming ubiquitous. Such devices have created a revolution in the way people communicate and exchange and use information. Presently, many people use multiple mobile computing devices to achieve their communication needs and it is not unusual for a user to have all of a smartphone (e.g. an Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, etc), a tablet (e.g. an Apple iPad, Google Nexus 7, etc.), a laptop computer and one or more non-mobile computing devices, such as a desktop computer which they use for various tasks throughout their day.
Users desire to access their data and information, as seamlessly as possible, from each computing device so that they can be connected irrespective of how that connection is achieved. One proposed solution to such seamless connectivity has been so called “cloud” computing, whereby all of the data relevant to a user is stored in an online storage “cloud” and the user can access and/or interact with that data via any connected computing device.
However, the present inventor has determined that problems and/or limitations exist with using such cloud-based solutions. One problem is that, while most computing devices provide an HTML browser through which a user can view HTML-compatible data stored in the cloud, each category of computing device typically has one or more types of data, such as data related to a specific application, which requires a particular application to interact with the data. For example, a user may utilize a messaging application on their smartphone, but the user is precluded from accessing and interacting with that data unless the relevant messaging application is also available for the other computing devices, such a tablet, they use.
It can also be the case that a desired application is not available on one or more categories of computing devices, i.e. the text messenger application may be available on a smartphone and tablet, but not on a desktop or laptop computer. Similarly, a desired application may be available only on computing devices executing a particular operating system (i.e. Apple's iOS or Google's Android).
Further, even if the desired application is available for the computing device the user wishes to employ, that application may not have been installed on that computing device when the user wishes to use it. Thus, the user is required to first obtain and install the application on the computing device (if permitted by the owner of the computing device) and to perhaps pay an additional licensing fee for the right to use the application.
Another undesired, but common, problem is that the same application implemented on different computing devices will often have different user interfaces, requiring a user to learn to interact with the application in different ways on different devices.
Also, in some cases where a desired application could be available for a computing device, it can be the case that the computing device being used does not have needed hardware capabilities to properly execute the functions of the application. For example, a text messenger application which employs SMS messaging, requires that the computing device be connected to a cellular telephone network. While a smartphone or tablet can have such capabilities, a desktop computer or laptop computer may not have such capabilities.